L.A. NAACP Should Expunge the 2009 Award to Sterling

Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Tuesday, April 29 called on the NAACP and all civil rights organizations to thoroughly vet all future civil rights award recipients. No award should ever be given to anyone who does not meet a rigorous criteria of having a proven track record on their civil rights work and achievements.

The L.A. NAACP rescinded the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award it planned to make to Donald Sterling. Now it should go further and wipe the slate clean on Sterling by expunging from the record the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award it did make to him.

"Civil rights awards must never again be given to individuals such as Donald Sterling based on their money, influence or any perceived favoritism," says Hutchinson, "This makes a mockery of the fight for civil rights and the public reputation of civil rights organizations as the legitimate custodian of those rights. The Sterling NAACP Award is the rude wake-up call for all civil rights organizations. That wake-up call also includes expunging the NAACP's 2009 Award to Sterling."

Clippers owner Donald Sterling, accused of racism and embracing a "vision of a Southern plantation-type structure" in a lawsuit filed in February by Elgin Baylor, will be given a lifetime achievement award next week by the NAACP. . . .

Leon Jenkins, president of the Los Angeles branch of the civil rights organization, says of the much-maligned Sterling, "He has a unique history of giving to the children of L.A.," revealing that the owner donates anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 tickets a game to youth groups for nearly every Clippers home game. . . .

Noting that the NAACP had made plans to honor Sterling before Baylor filed suit, Jenkins says, "We can't speak to the allegations, but what we do know is that for the most part [Sterling] has been very, very kind to the minority youth community." . . .